Trash Tracking

I got a free membership to Going Green Today and on Saturday the daily action was to track your trash and then on Tuesday Fake Plastic Fish posted a Challenge: show us your (plastic) trash. I decided to do a whole week a tracking my trash starting on Monday May 11th. I was doing pretty good writing it all down and putting the plastic aside through Wednesday. After that I didn't put in as much effort and figured I could sort through things on the weekend. That didn't go as planned either and I went digging through my trash about an hour ago figuring out what I actually threw away. I got pretty much everything but I was not super meticulous about any of it.

This week seemed to be a bit low on trash over all compared to an average week, we were flat broke until Friday but also because of that we had a few meals of fast food graciously provided for us which did result in a lot of trash items we usually don't have. In whole though this week would fit well into a months worth of trash. We often have times of little money and meals provided by friends and family, we also have times of pure laziness and the quick run to the fast food joint. In the past month we have really tried our best to not visit fast food establishments and were doing pretty good until this past week. Also because of the lack of funds we were not cooking at home as much and so there was less packaging waste than normal so it probably, amount wise, balances out.

Here is my list of the week's trash:

Trash Tracking Starting Monday May 11th

Trash:

10 or so paper napkins

lemon rinds

about 2 cups of various leftovers not eaten

1 medium pizza box

5 bags with kitty litter cleanings

little balls of hair everyday from shower drain and/or brushing my hair

6 inch piece or so of floss everyday

Non-recyclable plastic trash (only #1 and #2 plastic containers are recyled curbside):

package from ramen noodles and sauce packet

tahini tub #5 plastic

1 fed ex bubble envelope from shipment of new moto renew phone made from recycled plastic

1 plastic baggie from charger for phone with a bit of tape

2 small grocery bags from taco bell

1 plastic plate and lid

1 food envelope with plastic window

1 salsa cup with lid #5

4 plastic lids and 4 plastic straws

1 plastic film wrapper to new "eco" sponges

1 plastic wrapper from top of wine bottle

1 ice bag (i know you are thinking, "you buy ice" just a luxury we have gotten use to)

1 asparagus tag

1 plastic twist cap from soy milk

1 inner plastic seal from soy milk (often times save these and use them as cat toys, they love them)

6 hot sauce or bbq sauce packets

1 gallon zip lock bag that appeared out of cupboards, hubby probably finished something

1 fig bar snack tray

1 container of turtle food no recycle number on it so I just toss it

Plastic Trash that will get reused:

Lid from turtle food (reused as an animal food dish)

3 fast food cups (reuse in garden, for watering or cut bottoms off and use to start seedlings)

cottage cheese tub (reuse in garden use as pot)

2 produce bags (will be reused for cat litter collection)

2 bulk item tag/clips (will reuse for next purchase, i always say that and always forget them and get new ones but i have not thrown any away in a long time)

Plasticized items that are trash:

plastic coated paper soy milk carton

8 paper lined with plastic tea bag wrappers

6 paper coated with plastic fast food taco wrappers

paper bag from fast food with plastic reinforced handles

butchers paper lined with plastic from meat counter

1 produce bag used for pre-marinated meat from meat counter (cant use for cat litter)

8 fast food sandwich foil looking plastic coated paper wrappers

1 paper coated with plastic fast food box (says on it not to microwave because its lined with plastic)

1 fast food fry plastic coated paper cup

1 regular fast food plastic coated paper drink cup

plastic lined paper "saftey" seal from new turtle food

Recycle:

1 large can and lid, plastic coated

two foil trays from dinner leftovers

2 half foil half paper lids to trays

2 cans cat food and 2 lids, plastic coated

6 paper Lipton tea bag wrappers

cardboard egg carton

paper display sleeve from sponges

4 straw wrappers

2 receipts with coupons/adds on back

5 pieces of old scrap paper with notes on them that are no longer needed

2 glass drink bottles with metal lids

Mail that gets recycled:

small box like envelope from dog treat sample

6 junk mailers, add coupons and things, that's addressed to postal customer

nrdc native voice mailing

2 election fliers

netflix DVD flap

Paper that gets added to scrap paper for notes then eventually recycled:

2 envelopes

7 bill envelopes with plastic windows

2 receipt

Here is the picture of just the pure plastic stuff, including the stuff I plan on reusing: